Money and Financial Business

This is the picture of the landscaping after it is completed. Yesterday’s picture was not complete. We added the rocks and changed the spiral arborvitae to a topiary. It seems to provide much more balance and again we are pleased with the results. The bedrock really seems to add to the overall ambience of an ideal picture perfect front yard landscaping. The combination of holly, perennials, hostas, topiary, burning bush, and (I can’t remember the name of the last plant) may seem a little sparse now. However it is considered the baby planting stage and as such after several years the plants will bloom into adulthood and in effect fill out the garden bed. It just takes a little time.

Today we bought some premium rib eye steaks from the local grocery store Jewel Osco. The quality of these store purchased lean steaks is far better then Ruth’s Chris, Magnum’s, Steak & Ale, Cheesecake Factory, or any other high end steak house and at a far lower cost then eating out. Although we have a BBQ grill on the back deck, I prefer to cook the steak on a regular frying pan and sear the steak to seal in the juices. A tender medium rare pink cooked and seasoned to perfection is the ultimate in home cooked meals. We also cooked some sautéed mushrooms and onions, baked potato, and asparagus. For salad we had a mixture of baby leaf lettuce, baby tomatoes, cucumbers, chives, and other mixed vegetables with a concoction of soy sauce, vinaigrette, sesame oil, and other spices for a perfectly seasoned salad. For dessert, we had a brownie, banana, and vanilla ice cream concoction topped with butterscotch sundae topping. Oh, I forgot to mention we also had Ravenswood red Zin with dinner and crystal clear jazz and blues filling in as background music on our Bose 35 home entertainment system. It was a near perfect evening for two love birds trying to make up for lost time.

Well this is really yesterday’s posting as I got side tracked mid writing this post. Also it was raining today and I was not able to get a picture of the mods to the landscaping. However I will get a picture posted next weekend when I get back home. The addition of the topiary and stones really made a difference.

Professor John Kenneth Galbraith died over the weekend aged 97. A brilliant Keynesian economist and leading proponent of political liberalism and progressive values, he wrote more than 40 books and was known for his caustic wit and elegant prose which made complex subject matter accessible. He was also known to be a keen observer of the financial markets and theorized that crashes were a consequence of human nature.

"After the October 1987 stock market plunge, when the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 22% in a single day, Galbraith drew comparisons to the epic crash of 1929."

"Avarice on the part of myopic investors, he said, was a recurring theme. "I'm inclined to think that fools and their money will always be separated," he said."

A prophet let down by history

"His 1958 best-seller The Affluent Society, a mocking critique of Mr and Mrs Middle America in their "mauve and cerise, air-conditioned, power-steered car" laid out his theory that modern life is dictated by oligopolies telling people what to buy through saturation advertising - and damn the public good."

"The family which takes its mauve and cerise, air-conditioned, power-steered and power-braked car out for a tour passes through cities that are badly paved, made hideous by litter.... They ... spend the night at a park which is a menace to public health and morals. Just before dozing off on an air-mattress, beneath a nylon tent, amid the stench of decaying refuse, they may reflect vaguely on the curious unevenness of their blessings. Is this, indeed, the American genius?"

"He was the prophet of boom and bust, recounting cycles of human folly down the ages. The Great Crash: 1929 is an indictment of US capitalist elites, an expose of the market group-think and collusion that entrapped the unwary in the Ponzi scheme of speculation on margin."
"But if his analysis does not stand the test of time, his insights into mass psychology certainly do. As the US economy digs deeper into debt than ever, one might dwell on his Scottish low-church warning that there is no such thing in economics as a free lunch."

Pretty much fund an account with 10,000k+ do 5 trades a month for 3 months and get $500 free. Good thing is that you get free trades for 45 days which is great. That is why you see a shift of 11k from banking to investments. I wanted to invest more since i am still young and can be more aggresive. My first stock I bought was MSFT Microsoft. That day the stock plunged more than 11%. I took the bite and bought it for 24.25. At the end of the day I lost $15 it ended at 24.15. I think the stock will go back up and even further so its a good time to buy now when its the 52 week low. http://www.tdameritrade.com/offer/apex.html

Account Totals
Banking	$40,148.47
Credit Cards	$0.00
Investment	$50,878.46
Total Value	$91,026.93

Pass the 90k mark here I come 100k!!!

Somebody once said, “The moment I leave something on luck. It runs away.”

One thing that has always fascinated me is the way some people overemphasize the luck factor in life. I have thus for long tried to understand how important is the element of chance in achieving success.

Social Proof & Luck:

As often happens in the free market economy if there is a demand to be met, somehow it will be met. Thus the desire of the people to increase their probability of getting lucky has become a great market in India, at the least. The market comprises of astrologers mainly who always have reason for everything that has happened to you. I don’t know if that all works or not but I know for sure that people tend to overemphasize the utility of these things. This reminds me of a famous quote by J.K.Galbraith,

"This is a world inhabited not by people who have to be persuaded to believe but by people who want an excuse to believe."

Probability & Luck:

“Probability is omnipotent and omnipresent. It influences every coin at any time in any place, instantly. It cannot be shielded or altered. And probability is not limited to coins and dice and slot machines. Probability is the guiding force of everything in the universe, living or nonliving, near or far, big or small, now or anytime”—Scott Adams

I think that the above para explains pretty well the concept of luck which according to me is nothing but permutation and combination. And only if we can zoom out and see ourselves as the part of the ecosystem it will be apparent that we cannot by any means control the things happening around us all we can try and do is make the best use of the things around us. But the problem is that when things don’t go the way we expect them to go. We would say that ‘I did everything that needs to be done and yet things did not work out. Why?’ I think that the following quote explains it rather well that some things are unexplainable,

“Every other question has an answer to why. Only probability is inexplicable”—Scott Adams.

Investing & Luck:

“When we try to pick anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”—John Muir

I think once we start thinking of stock markets as an ecosystem we realize that there are lots of variables that can influence it. To add to it, we are not competent enough to understand and extrapolate all the variables into stock market reactions. There will always be this systematic risk which can work against us and sometimes for us.

Thus I think one of the most important thing in investing is to be in a position where we are not required to close a position because of financial need. And if we play the game long enough and diversify as we go along we can expect to achieve what we deserve.

“We might see randomness in the outcome of an individual coin toss, but as the number of tosses increases, probability has firm control of the outcome”—Scott Adams

Conclusion:

Human nature being what it is we tend to overestimate the influence luck or chance has on the outcome when something goes wrong. This might reduce dissonance for a while but the trade off is the state of psychological denial which is a big drag on understanding things the way they are. And few things are more important than understanding things as they are. Thus I think that the following advice from Charlie Munger is worth its weight in gold,

“Whenever you think that some situation or some person is ruining your life, it’s actually you who are ruining your life. It’s such a simple idea. Feeling like a victim is a perfectly disastrous way to make go through life. If you just take the attitude that however bad it is in anyway, it’s always your fault and you just fix it as best you can – the so-called “iron prescription” – I think that really works”

Silver Exchange Traded Fund (ETF): SLV Introducing the new silver exchange traded fund (ETF): SLV You can get in on the hot commodities and precious metals actions without owning physical metals such as gold and silver coins. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) allow you to invest in commodities and precious metals, like Gold and Silver, and watch [...]

Nowadays, when I look at the gas prices I shiver in horror. I thought there was no way it could get any worse than $3 a gallon but now even the cheap stuff is close to $3.25 a gallon. I'm not alarmed by the gas prices because I drive a gas guzzling SUV or drive an excessive number of miles and part of me is glad that the higher gas prices are making people think about alternative forms of transportation and conservation (the operative word in that sentence being "think"). Maybe more people will go out and by hybrid cars, making the actual cost of hybrid cars go down. Maybe more people will take the bus so that they will actually start adding more buses to the route and lowering bus fare. And maybe more people will start riding their bikes and they will see the need to make more bike lanes on the street (you have to be pretty fearless to ride your bike in the street where I live). I'm not going to get into a lengthy debate about whether or not the gas prices are justified or not because, well, it just makes me angry.

But I do want to point out that it's not just the actual price we pay to fill up our tank of gas that will be going up, it will be the price of everything. Think about it. Transport costs go up. Electricity prices go up. The cost to manufacture goods goes up. As the cost to do business goes up, companies will pass this on to the consumers as higher prices. I'm no economist but I foresee inflation. Not just your regular run of the mill inflation, but big mean bad angry inflation (can you tell I am not an economist?).

They say that gas prices are the result of "supply and demand" in the market. So what can we do as consumers to decrease demand for energy therefore bringing the market cost back down and saving the environment in the process?

Well there is the obvious DRIVE LESS and buy more energy efficient vehicles but there are also a lot of other things that we can do that will save us money in the short term as well as reduce consumption. By reducing consumption we not only cut back on the amount of waste that is created when we throw the product away but also reduce the amount of energy and resources that it took to create it in the first place.

One of those things we can do is to stop buying bottled water. Bottled water is one of my biggest pet peeves. Not only are you paying a ridiculous premium for something that you can get right out of your faucet, but the waste it creates is astronomical.

PEOPLE, you have got to get over your fear of the water in the faucet and stop buying bottled water! What a waste. We don't live in Tijuana where it probably isn't safe to drink the water. Do you know anyone who has ever gotten sick from drinking the tap water? I certainly don't. Studies have shown that bottled water is the same if not worse than tap water. And if it's taste you're worried about, I have found that by purchasing a filter and keeping water in the refrigerator I end up with water that is virtually indistinguishable in flavor from any water I have had from a bottle. And if its portability you worry about, just buy a water bottle that you can wash and use over and over again.

I use the Brita Pitcher and Nalgene Water Bottle, both one time investments that have paid for themselves many times over because I don't need to constantly buy bottled water. If you consider that the price of a bottle of water is approximately $.50, the total cost of these two items is about the same as 80 bottles of water. Assuming that you drink two bottles of water per day, the cost of both of these items will be recovered in less than two months.






Have you ever thought about how much environmental harm is caused by those little water bottles? The Container Recycling Institute estimates that 1.5 million barrels of oil are consumed every year, just to transport bottled water in the United States. That is enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars for one year! That is not including the energy cost to produce the bottles or to transport the waste that will end up in landfills for more than 1,000 years, the time it takes for a single bottle to biodegrade.

Just by making one small change, you could be saving yourself money, reducing the demand for oil and saving the environment, all at once.

Ok, I'm going to go hug a tree now.

Well the verdict is in on my front yard landscaping. The professionally built retaining wall looks just that, a retaining wall that has the look, feel, and aesthetic of being built by a professional landscaper. The combination of tilling, sowing, and reseeding the front yard along with the new retaining wall, turned out great. We are very pleased with the results. It really enhances the front view of the house and makes it look almost like a new and different house. For anyone considering the building of a retaining wall for their house, I would recommend not skimping on the cost and using the best contractor you can find. I’ve seen retaining walls built by non-professionals and by professionals. In each case, the results were reflective of their cost and talents. I wish I had the foresight of having a before and after picture. It is a world of difference. I just hope the grass will grow in really nicely.

One of my mutual fund holdings is PRCGX a micro cap fund by Perritt Capital Management. I’ve had it for approximately one year now and it has increased by about 28%. Not bad. I looked up the historical average annual rates of return and this is how it falls out.

1 Year 20%
3 Year 31%
5 Year 22%
10 Year 15%
Inception 11.6%

This fund would encompass a portion of the domestic small cap weight of my index portfolio. Actually come to think of it, the annual return on my better index performers this past year was as follows.

Emerging Markets EEM 58%
Japan Index Fund EWJ 48%
Mid Cap Domestic 26%
Small Cap Fund Domestic IJS 29%

All the other index funds this past year have had average returns all positive and none negative. I was planning on doing a portfolio reallocation this month in an effort to align the after tax brokerage account more closely with my Apollo Model Portfolio presented in an earlier post. I always seem to get a slight sense of dread and apathy each time I reallocate brokerage holdings. I suppose it’s an irrational fear of making a bad decision and seeing the portfolio value drop. I’ll get over it and get around to reallocating sometime soon.

Ciao,

Took some time and calculated my retirement portfolio's asset allocation percentages today.

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Let's play word association. If I say "addressing risk", "volume", "manage their portfolios", and "following the trend", what do you think of? Mutual Funds, ETFs, Hedge Funds? How about credit cards?

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I'm planning on doing a series on Disaster Recovery methods employed by our readers. I'm talking about the measures you use to make sure your personal data and paperwork/media are protected in the event of a massive emergency.

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After reading this article I am curious as to how the PFBlog readership uses margin loans outside of security buying.

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Some great tips for navigating the grocery aisles and maximizing time, money, and nutrition in the NYTimes Dining section. Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, shares aisle-by-aisle advice in her book "What to Eat."

According to the article "The new book is for anyone who has read a food label; been annoyed at how often their children nag them for certain cereals; wondered about the difference between natural and organic; or questioned who is minding the store when it comes to nutrition and food safety."

Some tips and tidbits:

• eat locally and, if possible, organically; keep it simple; concentrate on vegetables and fruits and make meat a condiment; and forget about processed foods.
• No matter what their labels say, margarines are basically the same — mixtures of soybean oil and food additives. Everything else is theater and greasepaint."
• She also advises parents who want their children to eat healthfully to stick to the periphery of the store. That's where the fresh, unprocessed foods are. "Don't set foot in the center aisles," she cautions. The chapters are divided by aisles: produce section, dairy section and so on. Safety and nutrition are addressed in detail.

I made $65 on the Sharebuilder-Costco account promotion today when the promotion amount was credited to my Sharebuilder account. I signed up for the promotion as a Costco Business member and Sharebuilder promised to credit me with $65 once I executed my first trade.

I transferred $100 into my Sharebuilder account and purchased four shares of PBW, the alternative energy Powershares ETF that tracks the WilderHill Clean Energy Index. That trade cost me $15.95 and have since earned back the commission amount since the late March trade.

Sharebuilder was good to their promise, and promptly credited the amount in 4-6 weeks. Now I can either:

1. Let it ride
2. Use the free money to execute more trades; add more funds
3. Set up an ACH transfer @$4 per investment the first Tuesday of the month...

I'm considering the options.

What’s more important - having a large bank account balance or a healthy positive cash flow each month? I’m sure both are important, but which one should we focus our attention on when budgeting? Should we budget and plan based on money in our bank accounts? If I want a new plasma TV that costs $2,000 and I have $8,300 in my bank account, I could make that purchase stress-free right?

The amount in a bank account is the least important factor when making expenditure decisions. To increase our wealth and achieve independence, the primary factor we need to control, manage and think about is our cash flow. If I’m spending $100 more than I make each month, buying a $2,000 TV is a bad idea, even with $8,300 in the bank. In a negative cash flow situation, that balance will quickly diminish and with it the false sense of security it created.

Too often, we buy something or make a big financial decision based on the amount of money we currently possess and then find ourselves frustrated later on when we realize we aren’t progressing financially. In the words of Robert Kiyosaki, we’re stuck in the rat race! If we aren’t carefully tracking our monthly in-goes and out-goes we don’t have enough information to make sound financial decisions. The only way to increase our wealth and get out of the race is to manage our cash flows, i.e., spend less than we make and intelligently invest the positive cash flow.

Printable coupon but I think it is only good for one regular priced item.

According to this article on CNN Money there is a saying on Wall Street "sell in May and walk away" in regard to the next six months of the calandar year. Is this for real? Am I really suppose to dump everything because it is spring? If so what the hell do I do with the money? If I put it my checking account I know I will end up pissing it away and end up needing a loan in November to get back into the game. What does everybody else do?

It seems that we are in the midst of a classic speculative boom in commodities at present, we must watch this situation closely for signs of distress. It is possible that a crash in commodity prices could also have flow on effects on other markets and the greater economy in general.

Commodity bull run may be in the final lap

"After a boom that took the prices of many raw materials to the highest levels in 25 years, the commodities market seems to be entering its final, manic phase."

" "Current high prices are unsustainable," Simon Hayley, an economist at Capital Economics Ltd said this month in an analysis of commodity prices."

"In the Internet crash, for example, some of the smaller Web companies found it impossible to raise cash at the start of 2000. By the end of the year it was impossible for any of them to find investors."

"In the same way, what's happening in the silver market today may well happen in other commodity markets within a few months."

Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks. Not sure this is answer to the gas problem but I could certainly use the check.

Queercents is coming out of the closet today as a new personal finance blog serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The site features writings from three established money bloggers (Dawn of FrugalForLife, Nina of Sitting Pretty and yours truly) and will aggregate financial resources and content with particular relevance to the LGBT community.

I will certainly continue to post about my own personal experiences with finances here on Clutter2Cash and now with the launch behind us I can get back to updating all you curious folk about my money sitch (it's not all rosy, I'll tell ya!) and attempting to be helpful to anyone with a curiousity about personal finance :)

Everyone is welcome at Queercents, so please come take a look around and feel free to give us your 2 cents on the new site.

Conexant (CNXT) has scheduled their earnings call for 5pm today. I intend to hold onto to my few shares which might be an indication for everyone else to sell theirs shares quickly. We'll see this evening.

NETL reported revs and EPS ahead of expectations and guidance was better than expected also. What was a big positive for me was the ability of NETL of to deliver a solid 10% revenue growth without any growth driven from its largest customer- CSCO. There has been plenty of naysayers out there blabbering about how a majority of NETL revenues are dervied from CSCO and how that is a bad thing. I

Trying to make sense of the market is like trying to predict the weather--although there are not necessary corresponding seasons. There are cycles and patterns and moving averages. I've been following with pleasure the Market Week forecasts of Raymond Merriman. He provides both short-term and long-term analysis, and is more frequently than not, right on the money.

“But our focus for stock indices is on...May 5th. If this corrective decline ends sometime this week, we could see another leg up as the indices resume their “blow-off” pattern.
Right now it is grandeur and a littler hysteria, and it is not “common sense.” We do not live in a time when “common sense” rules the day. And in my opinion, we may very likely experience the opposite end of this dynamic—panic—in 2011.

Outstanding investment opportunities for the long-term: These will result from the social discontent that is already starting, and will inspire young people to find alternative ways to construct their collective life style in the next two decades. As mentioned before, watch the young people. Watch what they do, and what they rebel against. Watch the Establishment too, for what they will try to suppress in regards to “youth movements” will likely fail, as the “New World” and new ideas emerge.

I received a letter from the company that carries one of bank cards today. They're raised my credit limit to $20K and practically begged me to use the card. It's ironic that by not using the card, my credit limit is steadily increased and the advantage offers, dividends and perks just keep increasing.

With two bank cards that I pay off each month, I almost feel sorry for them. Should I use it? I make a purchase or two each year to keep the card active and avoid any other fees that might be lurking in the fine print. Are banks getting more desperate for our finance fees?

I'm always amazed that women will spend hundreds of dollars for expensive skin care creams. The truth is only water will add moisture to your skin and only oil of some type will seal the water in.

If you're spending money on expensive creams, lotions or moisturizers---stop now. Even if you're buying generic at the grocery store you can still save money and get absolutely wonderful skin care. Buy sweet almond oil in bulk---take in your own plastic bottle and fill it up. Price per pound is usually about $5.

Scent it with some vanilla or almond extract or essential oils. Use it in the shower, just before rinsing, to keep skin soft and supple. Add it to wet hair, wrap and read a magazine, and then shampoo out for your own hot oil treatment (if you need product!) Slather it on your heels and put some socks on for a pre-pedicure treat. You won't need Estee Lauder anymore!

In an effort to improve their local economies, most states, and many municipalities and counties, sponsor a variety of public funding sources for small business concerns. At the state level, nearly all states have some form of state economic development agency and/or state finance authority that make loans or loan guarantees to small businesses. State Commerce Departments often have direct or participating loan programs that may be even more attractive than SBA-guaranteed loan programs.

When we married last year (second marriages for both of us) I was too involved in launching a project to take more than a few days off. We never had a honeymoon and now we're going to take one---several weeks in the Mediterranean.

After buying a house together and joining households, we stayed with our current "S" withholding allowances. Although we could have changed our W-4's and greatly reduced our withholding, we didn't. We let the government save the money for us last year. Based on our experience with our tax returns for 2005 (we also bought points on our mortgage last year that were deductible) and the IRS worksheets, we adjusted our withholdings for 2006. Now the government isn't saving for us, but the thousands we got back this year are funding our belated honeymoon.

Small businesses needing small-scale financing and technical assistance for startup or expansion may be able to obtain up to $35,000 through short-term loans of public money called "microloans." The average loan size is about $10,500. These loans are administered through responsible nonprofit groups, such as local economic development organizations or state finance authorities, that are selected and approved by the SBA. The SBA loans the money to the nonprofit organization which then pools the funds with local money and administers direct loans to small businesses.

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HOWTO: Buy an HDTV

Exchange-Traded Funds, or ETF’s, combine investing and trading, giving you another tool for becoming a successful investor. Exchange-Traded Funds - An Explanation: An Exchange-Traded Fund is a stock market security that generally tracks an index, such as NASDAQ, or a group of stocks. ETF’s are similar to mutual funds in that they are a collection [...]

I sometimes refer to airline coach seating as "cattle class", but Airbus is taking the concept to a new low. This excerpt is from an April 25 article by Christopher Elliott of the New York Times:

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Ah! What a wonderful long weekend. It started on Wednesday and ended on Sunday. Five days of rest and relaxation.. in uh, Brooklyn. Total disregard for Personal Finance. Sorry.. I screwed the budget thing a while ago. I will pick it up again, eventually, I swear! Anyway, I woke up late everyday and found things to do around the city. It was a taste of the FIRE life, and I absolutely loved it. I did some shopping, ran some errands and ate out several times. I even had Japanese food twice. For NYers, Sashimi Deluxe and Hamachi Kama at Tomoe Sushi is hard to beat. (Quality, quantity, and price!) Osaka in Cobble Hill had decent Sashimi as well. I wanted to go see the Bodies Exhibition at South Street Seaport, but at $24.50 a head, I just couldn't. Biking in Prospect Park wasn't a bad alternative. Overall, a fun weekend.

The Addiction that is Real Estate:

• The deal on the flipper is about to go through. Addressed some items on the inspection list and hopefully everything will go smoothly. Won't say anymore right now.
• The tenant on the other property says he may leave at the end of June instead of May. Whichever is fine I told him, as long as he gives me a month's notice. Not sure how I feel about it though. Since I still haven't decided on what to do with this property, I guess having another month to think about it isn't so bad. Found out that someone else in the building is selling a smaller unit (by 100 sq ft) that is in worse shape, for $199k. That's good news for me since that could mean a handsome gain for me too.
• Wanted to check out an open house on a condo w/parking in a converted school house but decided against it due to the heavy rain on Sunday. $499k for a 800 sq ft 1br 1.5ba. Kinda pricey, but the parking is what's got my attention.
• Speaking of parking, the apartment I visited about a month ago that has parking has been reduced to $315k. There was also a similar apartment without parking that was also asking $329k then is now reduced to $295k.
• A buddy of mine mentioned to me about a possible FSBO on a 1Br w/ parking a few blocks away from me. I asked for the seller's contact info, but I haven't heard back. This would be the most ideal situation, but I think the seller might be too greedy and want something in the $400s.

Money:

I got a small raise. My base salary is now $80k. With the bonus that I received in February, my total cash compensation for 2006 will be slightly south of $93k. No complaints here. Boring job yes, good pay yes, wanting more for nothing, definitely. $80k is good, but $85k would be so much better.

The stackbacks system for generating wealth is unique because I don’t start by focusing on generating wealth. I don’t believe that is how you to start to get rich. I believe the most reliable way to get rich is by having certain baseline systems in place first. One of which I’ve covered, [...]

That Greg Mankiw once wrote a column attacking Bill Clinton's failed plan to put 15% of the social security trust fund in equities.

Guess what! I made an offer on a place and the seller actually accepted it!

WOW!!!

It's almost as if this is a regularly occuring event. :- )

Don't flame me but I have a confession. This property that I have an accepted offer on is NOT in the town of Acton! :-( But it is right next to it! Should I rename the blog In Westford?

By the way, those stats are outrageously outdated. I don't believe for a second that the median house value is anywhere near 300K nowadays. More like twice that.

Okay, juicy details only to come after the purchase and sale. I have grown since last week. No premature feelings of elation until things are legally bound.

Oh what the heck. w00t! w00t!!! w00t!!!!!! (Jumps up and down like a small child after his first cup of coffee)

    Mr. Kirby at Kirby on Finance has done an excellent job hosting the carnival of investing this week.

A checking account is a demand deposit account held by a customer at a bank, credit union, or savings and loan association. Money that is deposited into a checking account can be accessed by writing a check against the deposits without any prior notice to the institution holding the account. Cash can also be withdrawn directly or easily transferred into a another account. Many checking accounts include an ATM or debit card. A checking account generally has very low or no interest accumulation and may have fees associated with it.
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....and no, its not saving money on insurance...

I found out today that my house I have with my ex is going to be sold! It was put on the market on Tuesday and I will close on 5 May!!!

They say good news comes in threes.....

I got my tax refund. It has been sitting in my checking account since Thursday! I owe a big Thanks to Tired But Happy...Thanks - I read his blog and found where he said he had mailed his around the same time I did and so I decided to check and booyow! there it was!!!!!!

I had done the Check Status on your return and it said my return had been received and to expect the deposit around May 15! I love there timing!!!

What am I/we going to do with our new found money? Well $714 to savings, $1000 to pay for the Spring Break trip to Myrtle Beach, and then $1000 each for my wife and I. My wife is going to put her's in a CD (she found a 27 monther with an APY of 5.75%) and I haven't quite decided what I am going to do yet (I am open for suggestions).

This is an uncharacteristic post. I normally try to keep my posts longer and more substantial, and bring light to things that my readers may not usually think about or analyse. However, apparently in some people's minds, that means I am not an active blogger and therefore, I am not deserving of hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance.

While I understand why Flexo would propose and enforce a rule of two posts per week - some upcoming hosts are clearly not "active", in any definition of the word, the reality is that not every blogger has the time to post like he does (He has FIVE posts for today, April 24th). Furthermore, not everyone WANTS to adopt a posting schedule like he has. I honestly don't think anyone cares if I posted two sentences about how I received my tax refund today.

Should a blogger who updates regularly and consistently (whether that be weekly, bi weekly) be considered inactive? And should carnival hosts be prevented from hosting just because they have different posting schedules? Any thoughts?

What to do when a dozen eggs doesn't last until Sunday morning because Bo ate half-a-dozen in his omelet after coming home Saturday night? What's for breakfast when there's no bread, no eggs and low on milk? Go to the pantry and find a wholesome breakfast of hot cereal made delicious by adding a few other pantry touches. Vanilla and almond extracts are great items to have on hand to add aroma and flavor to much more than cookie dough. We also keep a supply of soy or almond milk on hand in the pantry; it's shelf-life is long and flavors are an interesting and healthy break from dairy.


This meal is high in fiber, iron, A, B & C vitamins, and antioxidants (blueberries!)

Whole Grains and Fruit Breakfast

1 cup 10-grain cereal (.33)
3 cups almond milk, or soy or evaporated milk diluted (.90)
1 cup dried mixed berries or other dried fruit diced into small pieces (.75)
2 cups applesauce (.60)
1 tsp. butter (.05)
1/2 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (.03)
1/4 tsp. salt (.001)
sprinkle of brown sugar, if desired

Bring almond milk, butter, salt, mixed dried berries and vanilla extract to boil. Add cereal, lower heat and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with brown sugar, if desired, and 1/2-3/4 cup of applesauce. Makes three servings.

My postings as well as my financial updates are delayed due to the inconvenience of not having my computer. It is still in for repair and I expect to get it back sometime this week. It’s amazing how reliant I’ve become on instant internet connectivity. I almost feel like I’ve lost a part of my limb or something important and near and dear to me.

OK. My current situation is that I will continue to work on the weekdays at the reserve center in Iowa until the end of the one-year activation period. Sine I was activated at the beginning of June of last year, I will continue to work in Iowa until the end of May of this year. Yes, I do drive back to Chicago on Fridays and drive back to Iowa on Sunday late afternoon. After my activation is complete, I will be returning to my civilian occupation and no more driving 4 hours each way on the weekends.

As I do most of my investment research at home in the evenings or weekends, I have not had an opportunity to reinvest the proceeds in my IRA account. I currently still have $28,000 to reinvest and it appears that some of the other stocks are close to hitting their sell price. Hopefully I will get my computer back this week and I can get it updated.

When I look at the brokerage account tracking various index funds, it appears to be doing well. I will provide an update in the beginning of May for end of April results. Tracking the 52-week high price of the index funds, it seems the funds are tracking at the 52-week high price as of late and it appears to be continuing to push the envelope to new levels of 52-week high price. From my perspective, it has the appearance of a mini bull market. Who knows how long it will last.

This past weekend my wife and I kinda went on an unplanned spending spree. We decided to get a new dishwasher because it is dilapidated from old age. The plastic coating on the wire rack wore off causing the metal rack to rust and turn everything inside rustic red. As for the mattress, it was causing me excessive back pain apparently from a pressure point on the middle of my back. I had no back pain sleeping in cheap shoddy disposable mattresses in Iraq or the hotel mattress in Iowa. When I slept at home the weekend before last, I woke up at 3:00 am in the morning with a near crippling back pain. That’s when I decided to get a new mattress. My wife suggested that we get a cheap and shoddy near disposable mattress since it was so good for my back. Well, I suppose she has a point. We compromised and got a middle of the road mattress vice a top of the line therapeutic foam mattress. All told the damage was about $500 for the dishwasher and $1,000 for the new mattress.

As for landscaping the front yard we decided to go with the high-end landscaper. I saw the landscaping done by the contractor and there is no doubt about the quality of his work. The neighbor’s yard that he worked on was definitely top notch. He will till and sow the entire front yard with seeded grass and build a 2 feet tall retaining wall in front of the house wall. It will be planted with various low maintenance green shrubs, holly’s, arborvitae spirals, and other green things. The total cost will be about $6,000. I know it sounds like a lot but it definitely adds value by helping to sell the house when the time comes. I don’t know that it will increase the value of the sales price by $6,000 but it should recoup some of the cost.

On Friday, we had dinner at home and had a bottle of Chalone Chardonnay. The vintage was 2004 and it was not buttery or anything near what I recall from 1994. I was disappointed but it was still good have some wine with a home cooked meal. For Saturday, we enjoyed a night out at Finley’s restaurant. It was good food with good wine in a pleasant atmosphere.

On Sunday we went to Trader Joe’s and picked up some cheap bottles of Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Raven’s Wood zin was about $10 and the other bottles of zin and cab was about $6 each. Relative to its price, the cheap wine is not bad considering the price.

Have a great week.

By Jeff Schnepper The No. 1 way to reduce your taxes with a smile is to convert your personal expenditures into allowable deductions. It sounds tricky, but it may not be so difficult as you think.

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Two Christmases ago, I received a very nice digital camera as a gift. I specifically requested the model, a Fuji Finepix S7000, for its features that approached that of an SLR (manual focus, shutter speed, and apeture settings, etc.) but wasn't too expensive. It was also a brand that I ...

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And this suckage will tend to continue through the end of finals. Ending circa May 12 (for me), and possibly earlier for Henry.

Well, we fell off the wagon for the second month in a row. I tried to simplify things so all we had to do was record our cash outflows. Unfortunately, that didn't even work. I am going to have to go back to the drawing board and see if there is something else we can try.